Disney+ Movie "Safety" & Potential U-M Movie Ideas / Storylines from Real Life
I watched the Disney + movie "Safety" last night... mainly because I am sucker for feel-good sports flicks where you know there will be some kind of happy ending... and it involved college football. Whole thing was like one large advertisement for Clemson football. The word "family" was probably said about 100 times in relation to Clemson football and its program (while at the same time they depict a coach threatening to kick the young man off his scholarship next season for poorer on-field performance / focus while he's struggling to support his younger brother). The story itself is inspirational though... and seemingly all based on real-life events. Interestingly: the young man it is based on only played 3 seasons at Clemson. He was "processed" / not offered a fourth year and finished his football career at Howard University while pursuing grad studies.
Had me thinking: why doesn't Disney do a flick on the University of Michigan and former US President Gerald R. Ford / Willis Ward? Unfortunately Michigan still caved on playing the game vs GA Tech but there is an inspirational story of friendship across boundaries and prejudice here.
What other inspirational stories could be scripted about Michigan football? Got to be a few in the program's long history.
December 16th, 2020 at 12:13 PM ^
Sarcastically: "OhiNo." Harbaugh's ineptness in recruiting Ohio.
Realistically: Something about Austin Hatch and Coach Beilein.
December 16th, 2020 at 12:14 PM ^
How about a movie about the poor towel boy that got laid out in the Water Boy. I'd like to know how he's doing.
December 16th, 2020 at 12:18 PM ^
The Austin Hatch Story?
The Grant Newsome Story?
The Spot - Dark Side of a Truck Stop
Enthusiasm Abandoned
So many more titles to think of... Alas, I am not a screen writer.
December 16th, 2020 at 12:37 PM ^
Austin Hatch, 100%.
December 16th, 2020 at 12:20 PM ^
Umm... today is kinda about recruiting and this post screams "OT in late April". Jk but not really.
But to answer your question - I think an inspiring story with Ford and Willis Ward would be cool based largely on the fact of when those events actually occurred. I'd also think it would be unique to see a Bio-pic on the early days of Fielding Yost and the formation of the point-a-minute teams in the early 1900's mainly because I'm so desperate to see high scoring offenses in a Michigan uniform again.
December 16th, 2020 at 12:21 PM ^
"Losing: A feel good story for all of Michigan's rivals"
December 16th, 2020 at 12:24 PM ^
Thinking about suing Disney for "anti-Michigan" slander for biased ABC/ESPN broadcasters who work to damage our recruiting and program.
#1 story = Kirk "I'm sorry again Michigan" Herbstreit.
Go Blue.
December 16th, 2020 at 12:26 PM ^
Charles Woodson: It Will Never Be Better Than This
December 16th, 2020 at 12:29 PM ^
The Michael Hirsch story is unreal and would make a great movie.
ESPN's story about Hirsch, "The Wolverine of Wall Street", was very cool:
December 16th, 2020 at 12:30 PM ^
I'm pretty sure the storyline has something to do with Palpatine being turned off by Vader's wussing out when came time to do what needed to be done with Luke.
So, he faked his own "death", built his OWN Death Star secretly in Columbus, then invested heavily into recruiting and converting young, angry jedis (e.g. ones that haven't gone soft yet and gotten caught up in playing skool.) Apparently, he's gotten so many that his walk-on jedis work out as storm troopers, biding their time to turn Sith Lord, evil overlord, or whatever other dastardly stuff needs to be done.
Unfortunately, led by an aging, gentler Vader, we've found several diamonds in the rough, but alas, Palp's stormtroopers can already read coverage, hit the open man, not to mention practice camp reports out of Columbus say Jabba's son is killing it at DT despite clearly lacking conventional athleticism.
To be fair, Vader's pupils are crushing it in the classroom. Admittedly, there has been a bit of attrition year-to-year, but certainly not much more than one would expect from what we've heard out of Alderaan...by the way, not to feel like we're living in the past, but has anyone heard anything from the Alderaan Department lately?
Perhaps something like that.
December 16th, 2020 at 12:32 PM ^
how about the brock mealer story, brother to one of our O-linemen, the kid that had a 1% chance of ever walking again after a bad car wreck. i was at the game with some of my kids, gosh, a decade ago (?) where he walked out on the field. very moving morment.
link to story here:https://bleacherreport.com/articles/1138080-michigan-football-video-brock-mealer-learns-to-walk-without-canes
say what you will about rich rod, but he gave the green light to the strength coach to get that done. beautiful thing.
December 16th, 2020 at 12:38 PM ^
I teared up when I saw that. Truly amazing story for him.
December 16th, 2020 at 12:37 PM ^
I would suggest a movie based upon the life and career of Jim Abbott, maybe even one about walk-on Jordan Kovacs, but would Hollywood find their stories (and those of other already-posted suggestions) to be as inspirational as that of "Rudy" without major embellishment/half-truths/outright lies?
Would being a convicted stock market swindler (like Rudy Ruettiger) help their causes?
https://www.courthousenews.com/rudy-stock-fraud-charges-settled-for-4-5m/
December 16th, 2020 at 12:54 PM ^
I am a little surprised there hasn't been a movie made about Jim Abbott, just because a one-handed pitcher who winds up being a first-round pick, pitches a no-hitter, and generally had a solid MLB career feels like a worthwhile story to tell.
December 16th, 2020 at 12:44 PM ^
Each Mighty Ducks story goes to a progressively higher level of hockey. The third one was Minnesota prep schools. So the logical next step is college hockey.
This makes essentially no sense, but I give you: Mighty Ducks 4: The Shawn Hunwick story. You open with him as the freshman walk-on that's never going to play. Then he's the sophomore backup by necessity. Then Hogan gets hurt and they go on the run to the make the tournament and keep the streak alive. The following year, he's the back as the starter even though nobody believes that the previous year was anything other than a fluke. BUT WAIT! He leads the team to new heights! It's even got the modern subversive ending. The movie climaxes with the semifinal win over North Dakota and you think the coda is going to be them steamrolling UMD. Instead they lose gut-wrenchingly in OT. You get the text at the end that tells of Hunwick the Hobey nominee the next year and his brief NHL career, defying the odds until the end.
Mighty Ducks 4: Tiny Hunwick. Film it.
December 16th, 2020 at 12:59 PM ^
I like Hunwick's story a lot. He was so awesome in that North Dakota game. Usually Michigan would out shoot a team by a large margin, but then lose to some miraculous goalie play. It was nice to be on the other side for once.
I don't agree that it should be Mighty Ducks 4 though. I think Mighty Ducks 4 should be where the mighty ducks pee wee team has dominated the league for years under head coach Gordon Bombay. Charlie has a start player on the Ducks, ready to start a great season.
Charlie is approached about taking over the head coach of the Black Hawks team, an orginization that has struggled since the mighty ducks have taken over the league. Charlie accepts and now has to build a team to play against the mighty ducks, his former coach and mentor, and his son.
Mighty Ducks 4: Black Hawks Down
December 16th, 2020 at 1:13 PM ^
Love it, and agree this is a better story for the Mighty Ducks universe. But, I think that Disney+ has made clear this month that you have a much better shot at getting something made if you can shoehorn it into an existing Disney property.
December 16th, 2020 at 12:45 PM ^
The Ford/Ward story would make a great film. Can’t think of a better time for it to be made either.
December 16th, 2020 at 1:08 PM ^
I refuse to watch anything that in any way glorifies anything having to do with the Clemson program.
December 16th, 2020 at 1:16 PM ^
Here’s your movie. It’s called “Those Who Stay”. It starts with the ‘68 OSU game, including the press conference where Woody Hayes is asked why he went for 2. It then goes on to tell the story of the 1969 season.
The only thing that could potentially prevent that from becoming a blockbuster is the Dr. Anderson situation.
December 16th, 2020 at 2:38 PM ^
Pretty sure it was going to be
"Danny V: From three star afterthought to Michigan Legend"
The story of how Dan Villari overcame the odds, was thrown into the fire after both QB's in front of him went down with injuries, only for him to finish the season undefeated, and most importantly, ending the Ohio State win streak of 2020.
December 16th, 2020 at 4:14 PM ^
Remember when Clemsoning was a thing?